Why Does Great Content&nbspFail?

With every skirmish in the ongoing war over SEO hats, I inevitably hear someone say “I built great content, and no one cared – content marketing doesn’t work.” I’m not here to deny it – sometimes, “great” content falls flat on its face.

Part of the problem is that we throw around that word like it’s self-evident (“Build great content! Tada!”), but the other part is that we just don’t give our own content a chance to succeed. Too often, it's not the fault of the content or even Google, but what we do (or don't do) after we create that content. Here are a few ideas for evaluating “great” content and putting it into action…

Don’t Listen to Your Mom

Before you even start promoting your “great” content, take a minute to make sure it’s as good as you think it is. Have you ever seen an American Idol audition where some kid came out spouting how they were God’s gift to singing and dancing and then proceeded to look like Charlie Sheen doing a one-man show? Apparently, they never performed in front of anyone but their mom. Don’t trust your fans, when it comes to the really important content. Find some critics and listen to them. The content that people will come back to time and time again usually didn’t get written in one draft.

What Does “Great” Mean?

Just the word “great” is a minefield of ambiguity. We all have some ability to judge quality, but too often our measures of greatness are based on hindsight – a blog post was “great” because it got a lot of traffic, Tweets, Likes, etc. I don’t think there’s any one recipe for great content, but I have seen some common themes, at least in my own content marketing successes. Most great content will match at least one of these:

(1) Great Content Has Credibility

As a consultant and subject-matter expert, my most successful content has been the pieces that really distill years of my own experience. Don’t cover a topic if you don’t know what you’re talking about. On the flip side, don’t underestimate the value of your own expertise, even if you think your subject matter is boring.

(2) Great Content Takes Real Effort

Not all great content has to cost a lot (plenty of unknown brands have proven that), but I think that most great content takes time and effort to create. If you know someone poured themselves into a piece, whether it’s a well-researched post, a well-edited video, or a gorgeous infographic, it says that they respect your time and intelligence. Real effort resonates with people. Respect your readers.

(3) Great Content Is Actionable

This is more a feature of informational content than link-bait, but great blog posts, for example, leave you walking away with something useful. Whether it’s SEO tactics, recipes, or home-improvement tips, if you leave with actionable knowledge, you’re going to remember that content. Give people useful information and help them put it into action.

(4) Great Content Begs to Be Shared

On the link-bait side, great content is something you instantly want to show others, whether it’s out of awe, disgust, or just to show that you’re cool. When you’re done creating a piece, are you eager to hit “publish” or are you just glad that it’s over and you can go home? Create content that you’re proud to share, not just because it might go viral, but because you’re the one who has to share it first (see below).

Market Your Marketing

The great irony of content marketing is that you have to market it. We’d all like to write content that everyone links to just by sheer virtue of its greatness. Some people will argue that that’s “pure” and marketing is somehow a stain on real greatness, but (pardon me) that’s bullshit. Wanting to be recognized solely for our virtues is nothing more than an ego trip. If you sit around waiting for a job because you think you’re a genius, but never apply or never talk to anyone, good luck. Your ego is in your way. The same goes for content. Content marketing requires marketing, and that starts with you.

(1) Reach Out to People

Remember what I said about creating content that you can’t wait to share? Well, here’s your chance. If you churn out crap just to build links, you’ll be embarrassed to tell people about it, and you should be. If you know you built something great, you’ll be eager to show your friends and peers. So, show them – contact people directly and let them know you have something great. Don’t just tweet it once and forget – email people, IM them, call if you have to.

(2) Time Your Launch

Too often, we put hours or days into a piece of content and then just hit “Publish” when it’s done, like 8pm on a Sunday when our whole industry is on planes to a conference that starts Monday morning. Plan your content publishing like you would plan a product launch: pre-announce that it’s coming, time your launch well, and don’t be afraid to re-announce. You’re not going to get anyone bent out of shape because you tweeted the same link in the morning AND the afternoon (as long as you don’t make a habit out of it). Only a small percentage of your followers are paying attention at any given moment.

Although I think timing depends a lot on your audience, Dan Zarrella has written some great content on the science of timing content. HubSpot also has a tool called TweetWhen that you can use to see when you’re most likely to be re-tweeted.

(3) Have a Promotion Plan

It’s funny how we’ll pour our hearts and souls into a piece of content, but then, as soon as it’s finished, we’re on to the next project. Then, we wonder why no one cares. I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of this one too many times. Don’t forget the importance of what happens after you publish your content. Better yet, build a marketing plan that covers those next steps. Hit your social media outlets, actively build links, do guest-posts on relevant sites, etc. We see content go viral and assume it just happened by magic – 10% of the time, that may be true, but the other 90% someone hit the streets and made it happen.

(4) Post It Somewhere Else

It’s tough to put a lot of time into a piece of content and not let it live on your own site, but sometimes you need to go where your audience is. Take Oli Gardner’s massive Noob Guide to Online Marketing published earlier this year on SEOmoz. Oli could’ve easily posted this guide on Unbounce, but he opted to target a slightly different but still very relevant audience. Over 4,000 Tweets and almost 100K visits later, it’s hard to deny that this tactic had a positive impact for his reputation and company.

Greatness Isn’t Instant

One last tip: At the speed of the internet, we tend to think that every success is overnight. Some content takes days or even weeks to make its mark. I think the days of trying to make Digg's home-page left us with some bad habits, and one of those is giving up on content that doesn’t explode in the first hour after it’s published. It’s nice when it happens, but too often that explosion just left behind the charred remains of servers and nothing but some traffic logs to show for it.

If you believe your content is great, give it a chance. It could catch on because of a guest post, a well-placed link, an interview, or any of a hundred factors that happen in the days and weeks after the content goes live. Even if you finally decide it did fail, learn what you can from it. People want to bank everything on one-shot content, but even the best content marketers don’t succeed 100% of the time (I’d say they’re lucky to bat 0.200) – failed content still carries valuable information, and you can build the next piece of great content on top of it.

And the timing is good for me. I've recently realized that I have been spending a lot of time chasing after the instant viral fix rather than pouring my time into great content. I had a video go accidentaly viral on youtube and ever since then I've been chasing after the next viral thing!

But, just yesterday I noticed that some of my great content that I created 1-2 years ago is slowly creeping to the top of the serps and getting more and more hits. This is content that took me a couple of weeks to produce and is loaded with good images, videos and charts.

My viral video has now fizzled out. But, my evergreen content should be bringing in traffic for years and years to come.

So, the take home message for me is to keep my main focus on providing my readers with awesome stuff. And also, to work harder on promoting that stuff. It really is true that we love to hit "publish" and then sit back, but the work doesn't stop there!

I'm a big fan of content that stands the test of time. My most popular post on my consulting company blog was written in February 2009, but it has 37,000 unique views so far in 2011. It's 7X more popular than my home-page. It took a lot of work to write it, but I haven't touched it this year, and it's still creating traffic, links, and business opportunities.

People think that they're being smart by building links that take 15-30 minutes each, but it takes dozens or 100s of those links to have a real impact, and they often devalue after a few months. A great piece of content might take 20+ hours to build, but that could generate 100s of natural links and generate traffic for years. Which one's the real bargain?

I should also add that it's never too late to promote "evergreen" content. I you see your content getting attention, announce it on social media, build some new links to it, etc. Maybe the timing is just right.

An interesting post as usual Dr Pete. The only thing I would perhaps take issue with is that "great content is actionable". Sometimes the best posts are those that speculate and provoke thought, not just those that tell us what to do explicitly. I'm thankful that this is the case or else what hope would small SEO site/blog owners have of creating actionable content that hasn't already been covered by the likes of SEOmoz!?

From personal experience it is often opinionated or topical content that creates the highest level of engagement on the blog that I write for. I can't necessarily tell everyone something that they didn't already know (I still try), but I can often provide a unique perspective that might hopefully inspire thoughts/ideas.

I don't think that great content has to specifically be 'actionable', but I do think it has to be inherently 'interactive' in some way. If people are left to their own devices to share content, especially that which isn't produced by national/international brands, then very often it will fail. Interactivity is easier to work into most industries, for example a simple quiz with shareable results.

Having said that, I think there's still a lot of scope for actionable content in the SEO industry in terms of practical downloads - link building spreadsheet models, client proposal form templates, a downloadable PDF or doc of the stages of a professional site review, etc.

I should clarify (as more than one person mentioned this) - I don't think that great content has to have all 4 of those attributes. I just think that one or more are common to almost all great content. Obviously, a hilarious cat video isn't actionable, and a good rant or controversial piece can be credible without being actional in the traditional sense.

I would argue that some link-bait won't be as effective in the long-term if it isn't actionable. If we posted a hilarious cat video here on SEOmoz, we might get a ton of traffic, but what would that really do for us (those viewers aren't shopping for SEO tools)? Sometimes, actionable is a good gauge of business impact, IMO.

I definitely agree, though, that there is great content with solid business value that isn't always actionable.

Thanks for the reply. I was aware that you weren't suggesting that it need necessarily be actionable, but felt that the speculative and provocative articles of which I refer to are perhaps not adequately covered by the 4 attributes that you listed. Perhaps another:

Great content provokes thought?

Or maybe I'm getting a little carried away. In any case, clearly this article has successfully met this particular criteria! :)

Excellent points, Dr. Pete. I think timing is particularly important, especially when dealing with press releases. A press release sent out on a Sunday isn't going to have nearly the number of views as one sent out between Tues - Thurs. Even the actual hour a piece is posted can have an impact - putting out something in the middle of the day won't have as much of an impact as one posted early in the morning - you want people to see your hard work when they first get online, so they can share it throughout the day.

"putting out something in the middle of the day won't have as much of an impact as one posted early in the morning"

That depends a lot on your industry and where you're posting it. Posting something on Facebook in the minutes before lunchtime can mean you reach many more people who only check Facebook in their lunch break (and your post will be right at the top). On Twitter, we've found that for our customers and followers, we'll get more clicks and retweets from late morning onwards as much of our audience is self-employed and/or works flexible hours.

That's one reason I'm sometimes a bit dubious about posting the research on when to put your content out. It's good research, all else being equal, but all else is rarely equal. What works for my personal blog and what works for my professional posts seems to be very different, both in terms of networks and timing. You've got to run your own numbers.

How did you get the data that backs your followers and what time is the best for them? I'm just curious to find new ways, I found that only looking at my followers and past data for the content I'v shared wont give me enough. It would only give me "best practice" based on my content and the time for posting not the opertunity.

I agree with Jenni, I remember seeing some research to show that if you post something on Friday lunch/afternoon it will have the best resonse rate as a large proportion of people are using computers at that time.

I have even tested this accross numerous properties and have seen the same results.

James and Jenni, I agree with your points. I was speaking more specifically about online press releases. Shorter, quickly digestable items like Facebook posts and Tweets can be posted throughout the day - as Dr. Pete says, you can even re-announce once in a while, as the Twitter feed moves so rapidly.

In my experience, I have seen that promtions/launches on Friday don't always turn out well. Your contacts might not be available or some other reasons. In my opinion, the best launch times would be earlier in the week - say Mon-Wed, and earlier in the day - 6am PST. Has anyone had the same luck at those times?

I do think that it really depends on the industry that you are in or its seasonality. I am sure that anyone here can give examples that will prove the rest of us wrong. Of course if you target public liability insurance product you will be struggling if you distribute it at night during the weekend. However that's not the case if you have lottery tips just before the lottery is being rolled out on Saturday evenings.

If you have ever wrote something that you thought was kick ass, only to see if flounder, it can be dissapointing. Great content needs a great platform and sometimes, your truly killer stuff is better off somewhere as a guest post (like here for us folks) than floundering on your own site if your not a regular blogger.

Writing something that is truly wortwhile, be that actionable or not, let people know about it, and if you can get people to read it, then others will share it to take part of the shine from the content.

It's worth noting as well, that some content, may not blow up straight away, but if you have ever picked up work on the back of some article you posted a couple of years back then... sometimes the payback is not just in the initial burst of readership but can come down the road.

I think it's just true of writing in general, too, that sometimes you'll do everything you can and the content you thought was great will flop. So, you dust yourself off and try again.

One trend that bothers me is seeing companies rush to hire one-hit wonders. We all get lucky once in a while, and I'll grant that one hit is better than zero hits. It's a lot harder to consistently produce good content, though, than it is to produce one piece of "great" content (measured only by success/impact).

I suspect that propensity to hire one-hit wonders is due to the hunger for "viral" content. Everyone is so obsessed with pulling in millions of views for a single item that they don't bother with the less flashy (but ultimately more valuable) strategy of consistently good and useful content. Not everything in the world needs to be hilarious and worthy of forwarding to your friends or discussing around the water cooler, but people get blinded by the popularity contest.

If (when?) that unhealthy obsession with highly marketable content that is of dubious long-term usefulness dies down, good evergreen content should bubble to the surface.

I love your ability to strip away all the extraneous stuff and get to the heart of the matter. I'll just bet Thanksgiving will find you going right to the stuffing when the turkey appears! :)

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've said in this post. Most often our worst mistake is believing our own publicity while forgeting to actually distribute it to the world at large!

On distribution, it amazes me how many "marketers" will send the exact same message over and over. Fact is, tweet 10 times a day about the same subject with a slightly different message each time & I could care less, but tweet the exact same message half that much & I'm going to start thinking about unfollowing! Why is that not obvious??

It is common to think we can fart a great smelling tune and our piss tastes like grape soda. Well, at least I feel that way. A critic is worth a squillion fans, and the notion that you can be "your own worst critic" is true. That's not because you are harder on yourself, but because you really do suck at critiquing yourself ... we all do.

It is funny you should mention American Idol. I used the same point recently, and I found a great example in a contestant named Ian Benardo. He's worth a google is you have spare time for truly indignant hyperbole. I'm off to fart some classical tunes, myself. Thanks for the beans!

I especially like the tips for content timing, though I don't know that I agree with the not-hitting-publish-immediately point, though. The only reason I can think of delaying the publish is to catch the top of an RSS feed. Timing the promotion is a good idea, but delaying publish only gives it less time to germinate.

I'd like to see some data on when people tend to clear their RSS feeds, yknow, nail exactly when their queues are clear and you can rocket a post right to the top. Of course, if you don't have a lot of feed subscribers, this tactic is less effective.

Sorry - when I say "Publish", I tend to mean the entire act of publishing and announcing the content. The actual click of the button is a different matter, that's true. For example, we publish (in the technical sense) our posts in the late evening, so that they hit internationally throughout the morning. Then we do promotion the next morning. So, I tend to think of this post as being "published" Thursday morning, even though it really hit the blog Wednesday night.

I LOLed at the bit about ignoring your Mom. So many people think they have great content, but when you read it, it's pretty mediocre. I think it's because on the net we work without editors so our judgement of our own work is always subjective.

I like the conept in the you have said. Good idea to promote products or services. Content writing, link building & blogging is not the part of SEO but in web 2.0 SEO is much more than that where it was in the future. Great content means unique content fails. I understand that many online marketer trying steal the website data content to develop their own content. As per new Google Panda algorithm it will be vanished from the e-market. Now people are more concentration about their promotional activities rather than wasting time on links buildup & copying.

I m sure everybody like this post who read. Plan you next Caribbean vacations here.

imo its not about great content its about great author. How popular the author is more important than quality of cotnent. For example Arianna Huffington can write really basic content and get a lot of links and attention and i can write a kick ass content with all the stuff you mentoioned and not go anywhere.

I think it is indeed very important that you promote your promotion material. Otherwise nobody will find your great content. I hadn't every tought it would be important to watch the time of the launch. But I tried it and it is true. Nowadays through media like twitter, your messages are spread so fast (sometimes within minutes) that it is important that your target audience is able to search for it and find it.

In the past I've worked a lot at night because that is the time I always have the greatest inspiration, but it is not smart to launch your great content in the middle of the night.

Try to analyze your marketing to see which time is the best time for your audience.

Glad there's a conversation happening about this. Because yes, there's a lot of that TADA syndrome going around about great content - build it and they will come is a myth. Every piece of content we create has to be treated like it was engineered on a desert island with known longitude and latitude coordinates that no one knows about yet.We have to tell people about the content for it to hit the map.The other thing that's missing isn't just here's what great content is - it's audience. WHO is it great to? Not just your mom, not just your peers - does it speak to your desired target audience? If not you're wasting your time. What's great to you and what's great to them may not match up. Or you might be giving them text when they want video. There's a lot to consider.

You made it very clear - Great contents needs to be marketed and you have to be the one to initiate it - true. As if its not you who is sharing it with someone else then how come you expect others to do this. Also Greatness isn't instant, as it takes time for a post or an article to become popular. Once it reaches the mass and others get to know you and follow you, that process becomes automatic.

On your Market your Marketing - "Your odds go up when you file an application"

Patience is the key. I think often people discuss overnight successes like they're common place but dig a little deeper and generally speaking there's years worth of work put into that overnight success.

For one client, that means writing "what to know" articles about getting ready for the service to be delivered (granite countertops). Customers kept stumbling on some of the same topics (plumbing re-connects, slide-in ranges and how they fit, etc.). The articles address those topics.

Now the client can point new customers to the series of articles. And boy, oh boy are they getting read. The bounce rate has dropped to under 6%, and we consistently see visitors reading a dozen or more pages in a visit.

That comfort level with the process of having their counters replaced is leading to more referrals, and when those people call they are already comfortable with the quality of work they can expect and the whole sales process just goes more smoothly.

One thing I've noticed when promoting content on social networks is that blog posts you've methodically planned and researched and you think will have legs and be shared beyond your network sometimes doesn't propagate as widely as off-the-cuff content.

The points you've noted definitely increase the likelihood of your content achieving your awareness and link building objectives. But I've learned that it is never a slam-dunk.

Very inforamtive post by Pete. It ia always there to wait for the best time and effort to promote your content. I agree that when you are posting good content than you always want people to read it and like it.

Let's remember though that just because the writer thinks that the content is "great," not everyone else will. Social media provides a way not only to share information , but also to get feedback. Yes, you need to find ways to drive traffic to your content. But you also need to keep in mind that not everyone will like it. And there is so much content out there that you really need to stand out from the crowd in what you write.

Also, when you allow people to provide their feedback on the content, you are able to get a sense of what others thought about it. Of course, they may mention it elsewhere, but you have the potential to learn on your site what they think. You can then tailor future content based on what you find that pepple like.

This is great! Very impressive too, to see a couple of these pratices (have a promotion plan & post it somewhere else) in place just the day before on the SEOmoz blog - Danny had re-posted/summarized his periodic table-style analysis of SEO factors under the post title "A new way of looking at ranking factors". Not sure if you all planned this, but it was a great practical example!

I know lots of people who still think that creating a great content is enough, now once they are going to hit the publish button they will get lots of traffic, RTs, Links, +1 and traffic out of it... In a nut shell they think creating a valuable content and hit the publish button is going to achieve their goals... and this is the time when great content usually hit you in the face.

Great content needs effective marketing. No one knows you built a 8th wonder of the world 100 feet down the ground... to make it visible and make it a place where people stick, you need to build a road that leads to that.

I would like to ask a question Dr. Pete: I understand that credibility is really important to build content that matters, while knowing that there are some exceptions to the golden rules you're giving here (and they truly are!), but I'm wondering, does it means that all niche marketers around here always hire someone credible to build their content (according to the fact these niche sites are successful)?

I mean, some of them build these sites like sausage machines, and they're still being able to achieve great rankings. In your opinion, is it possible to build a great website while not being an expert at your subject...?

For example, is sharing our learning process can replace credibility (or make us credible)?

As I commented above about actionable content, I don't think that every single piece of great content has to be credible, in the sense of authority/knowledge. I will make two arguments, though:

(1) I think knowledge-based and actionable content can have more value from a business standpoint. Link-bait often draws traffic, but that traffic can be low-relevance or fail to convert. Having 1000s of people find your post hilarious and then instantly leave may give you a brand boost or good PR, but I'd rather have 100s of people that generate dozens of customers most days.

(2) If your content has a knowledge/credibility aspect, then I think it's important to provide that knowledge to the people building your content. Infographics are a great example. There are plenty of people who outsource them, but then end up with infographics that are heavy on the graphics and light on the info. It's perfectly fine to admit that you need outside skills (design, HTML, video, etc.), but I think it's important that the information value still come from the experts.

In that sense, then, yes, I think you can share your process. Some very knowledgeable people are lousy writers. I just think that the knowledge should drive the process.

When it comes to content, and great content, to have crystal clear who is your target and to have an editorial plan is essential. Without those premises or you content won't be great for your audience or won't attract their attention or both.
I use the word audience because, when it comes to content (and while considering their differences) web and tv are not that different... Or that is my conclusion when I confront my past (tv) and present (web). In fact, if you have a channel who marketed itself as movie channel specialized in B/W classic movies you won't have success proposing the "colorized" version of King Kong (1933). Surely a great content (King Kong) but not fitting your target (cinephiles). The same is for website: if your site is a serious site about Medicine, you cannot propose to your public an irriverent cartoon like infographic about virus, but it should be a more formal one.
And planification, it is essential: use Google trends and other statistical source about search intentions in order to plan your content. And, like the movie industry does very well, when you have created your great content, start launching teasers to your visitors, previews for the bloggers and the journalists... And if it is really a superb content, create an event about it using also your social media presence in order to "inseminate" the need of that content itself.

It's a good idea to remember us those aspects that sometimes get out of sight. Although I'm a true defender of the sentence "content is the king", finally, if we are not able to reach the appropiate audience, our king content turns into kind content, sinking on a big sea of posts, tweets, comments, etc. I agree with you about the timing, it's so essential, that I don't know how some people don't care about it. Everytime we try to spread our content, we must put the effort on study those appropiate niches for let it in.

This post caught my attention, I once had that long heavy weight content creating approach. I used to reserach for a month, write notes and cover a full topic in detail. Then I would craft it and post on the right time.

This got me lots of social traffic and stumble hits. Like 1000-2000 hits on one blow. I called them the foundation posts. I will soon work on this for my new blog.

Great post couldn’t agree more, usually great ideas are hidden due to lack of planning prior launch. I also think most content fails as a result of influence from other rather similar content across the net, instead we should be focusing on the backbone planning and above all being unique.

You've made some great points here. Like with link building, it can be tempting to take the low road when you see competitors riding a wave of crap to the top of the SERPs. It takes a lot more effort to come up with great content, but this is balanced by it being easier to promote content that you're proud of.

Good post Peter, and always great to refresh perspectives on standard priciples. It's funny, one of the toughest questions (IMO) at Q & A Mozcation Barcelona was exactly that and directed at Gianluca - how can you extend the reach of an infographic and if it's worthy using external agencies, etc.

The answer was great, in that you need to reach out to as many people as you can and if not, you can re-use the info at alater time, updating things. These syuggestions have been heard before, too - check out some great information from a few years gone by, and update, then contact all those people who originally featured and ask them to "update their link", etc. As has been said by most, planning is the best idea, and knowing just a few niche bloggers/site owners can propel content way further.

An interesting read, well done on a good post. With any and all content that we'd like people to find and read, Distribution is key. There are many forms of distribution of course, such as seeding, email, online & offline PR, social promoting & sharing... A well planned Distribution Plan is really essential. Thanks for the post, I look forward to reading your next one.

Great stuff, Dr. Pete. Great content goes far beyond the literal creation - it's the complementary marketing, outreach, and general strategy that make it effective. I would go on, but I think you said it best:

"Some people will argue that that's "pure" and marketing is somehow a stain on real greatness, but (pardon me) that's bullshit."

Thanks for giving brief overview in order to create and evaluate the great contents.

I liked the topic about whenever we make a great content we should take the considerations of critics, although they might give some criticism or opinion in such a way that...We may feel bad but at the end of the day it results in improvements. Those people who always admire for our work may not be the actual person to give the perfect ratings.

I always agree that it is better to create a single good actionable content for a day rather than creating craps, or just a Blah Blah type of content.

Because people don't want to read the same type of common contents but they need something unique & actionable . and of course..the strategies of promotion are always must to exceute and plan before and after the launching/publishing of the content!

I agree with you that Great Content becomes great only if it provides something meaningful to the people. Asking reviews about your content from your peers & relatives sometimes makes you over-confidence because they may not pin-point any mistake you made or don't say straightforward to you about any errors in your content.

You should definitely read out your content hundred times & must show them to your critics because they are the ones who'll provide you with exact answer about your writing.

Often Great content doesn't get the right audience which result in its failure. A content is only as great as its true reach. You may have one of the best content in your niche but if no one knows about it, share it or link out to it then it can be declared as 'Great'. It is like singing in an empty auditorium. You may have the best voice on the planet but there is no audience to perceive it. That is why building your audience/network is so important for content marketing. You can build your own audience over time via your contributions (commenting, guest blogging, forum participation, speaking etc) on sites with larger audience. You need people who show interest in what you say and do. You need people who are willing to share your contents or link out to it. To get attention you need to build authority, to build authority you need to contribute to the right audience. It is not a rocket science really. So next time you think why that guy waste so much time in speaking at conferences around the world and making his competitors more knowledgeable, try to understand the hidden objectives. He is building authority in his niche so that later people show interest in what he says.

Agreed - you can be the greatest shower singer ever, and no one's ever going to know but you. It's not the world's fault either, or the marketing industry's fault. No one can help spread the word about your great content if they don't know it exists. That's just a fact of life.

Its so ironic that great contents fail even you call it great already. But i definitely agree on your explanation and the criteria you mentioned of what does "Great" means. The same as market your marketing guidelines. Very true that all the four points you advice is so effective to have a great content really great.Now i should say you have a great article since i definitely convinced you have all the criteria to be "great". :=)Thanks!